Little rich kid?

It's funny how people pick up things completely the wrong way. I've heard from a friend there is one of those online forums where they are discussing my book. Apparently after a few posts describing the life I led and my battle to stay off drugs, one poster wrote: "Well, she comes from a rich family..."

Unbelievable! Us and all the other families on the famous Ballymun millionaire's row!!

The beginning of the end

July 2006. That was the beginning of the end for me and drugs. I was arrested fir shoplifting and knew a weekend in the cells lay ahead. Worse, a weekend without drugs. 

For the next few hours I couldn't feel anything as the last fix of heroin left my body. 

Eventually a garda arrived to tell me eight bench warrants were outstanding against me. I would appear in court the following Tuesday. I couldn't get any methadone so braced myself for the longest few days of my life.

Redemption story

There was a great review of Dying to Survive in the Irish Independent last week. The paper's book editor, John Spain, said: 

"This is the best book by far about the drugs explosion in Dublin, about the inadequacy of treatment facilities and about the mindset of a young junkie"

I'm over the moon with the review, there seems to be a real momentum building with the book, what with all the radio interviews, Sky News doing a report and now this glowing review.

Another part of the review says:

"It's only by managing to come out the other end, by becoming "the girl with the arms", that Rachael Keogh has managed to stay around to write it. Many of her peers were not so lucky.

After the media frenzy generated by her picture and TV appearance, Rachael was back in court on an outstanding warrant for shoplifting and back in prison. By then there was widespread awareness of her plight., no doubt helped by the media coverage of her case.

It took months, but eventually she got a place first in the Cuan Dara detox unit in Cherry Orchard Hospital and then in Keltoi, the recovery facility in the Phoenix Park. She was clean and on her way... and full of gratitude for those all the people who helped her, whom she names.

She is still clean. She is now in college studying psychotherapy. Her arms still bear the scars ... but they have healed. The arms that saved her."

You can read the full review here.

A big thank you

Just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who helped getting Dying to Survive published. It took a lot of effort but was well worth it in the end.

Thanks again! 

Number two on bestseller list!!

Wow, just found out that Dying to Survive is Number Two on the Irish Bestseller list for non-fiction books. I can't believe it, all that hard work writing the book seems to have paid off.

Thanks to everyone who has gone out and bought a copy!

What the book means to me

Here are a few reasons why I wrote Dying to Survive

1) To move on, with my son, to a future I thought I would never see

2) To understand why I became an addict

3) To forgive myself and my family

4) To close this chapter on my life